THE DAY WE SCREAMED COLLECTIVELY "WHEE!"
by Jonathan Redhorse

Several years beyond the day that Barbara's dad went mad and shot himself out the cannon, splattered charred limbs splayed everywhere like a paternal BBQ, we sat in pews watching Barbara walk down the aisle with a man twice her age who smelled of moths, smoke, and bourbon, just because he’d asked politely in a snazzy poshed up restaurant with a ring embellished with a diamond as big as the anger rising in Kurt’s heart as he sat being shot at in a strange land in a wounded vehicle; and after we had passed, on the way to the chapel, the old playground being torn down surrounded by orange mesh fencing, the merry-go-round standing amidst the rubble ready to be put out of our misery, Karen and I, not holding hands, and acting miserable in the church from the camcorders surveying the scene while Barbara’s mom wept with joy or terror, her pastel bedecked big-hatted friend patting her like a sack of suicidal crying tangerines, and just as Barbara and moldy old mothman gathered altarwise to state their I Dos, Kurt burst, sloppily tuxedoed, in shouting Happy day, the war’s over! creating a crowd of spectacle around him delaying the I Doing which must’ve been the plan all along to which I responded by grabbing Karen’s isolated palms, followed by her and I sprinting back to the playground where we leapt the orangey mess without a tangle dodging the defeated helter-skeltered chute we slid down on hot days burning our legs; we overtook the merry-go-round, a handle seized by each of us as we set it in motion and boarded, our heads disappearing as up above the sky and clouds exploded in orange as the two of us went “Whee!” in our best formal clothing till the wee hours of morning when we fell off, exhausted, nauseous, and bursting.

© Jonathan Redhorse 2004

Jonathan Redhorse is a university student. He recently acquired a new bookcase that's taller than he is. The bookcase is about six feet tall and has five shelves. Jonathan can be contacted at J1384J@1384.net. Please do not contact him. Thank you.

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